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As individuals, of course modern programmers don't change the world on the order of the people you've mentioned, but as an entire group the software development

As individuals, of course modern programmers don't change the world on the order of the people you've mentioned, but as an entire group the software development field has certainly redefined almost every aspect of human existence in ways that few other endeavors have come close to. Also, IMO, your argument is somewhat confused by various issues: Firstly, in science nobody will likely ever really top the original greats like Newton and such just because we've gone way past the point of such broad discovery into very niche specialization that doesn't allow for such a wide variety of discovery within one lifetime. Secondly, I'd argue that while Ghandi and Mandela were extremely important and I respect both far more than Steve Jobs neither really changed the world to the degree to which you are stating. Beyond the "feel good" aspect of their stories, their impact was fairly localized to their regions. See, for example, the continued US imprisonment of way too much of its own black population, which wasn't fixed by Mandela's incredible progress in South Africa. Thirdly, Steve Jobs was never really a programmer (unlike Bill Gates, or [more debatably, but technically true] Zuckerberg). Having said all of this, I didn't care for the article, it is very 8th grade level ("why are people working on XYZ trivial thing when people are dying of cancer?") thinking at its core, and me writing this post would be a waste of time according to it, which I don't even disagree with, but wasting time is a perfectly acceptable thing for humans to do.

atmosx 13y ago
I was actually planning on writing a detailed blog post on the subject, due to the high volume of company looking for X super-duper developers, to help us change the world attitude that is common these days. Instead it came out as a comment... But here it goes a more detailed explanation. What do we actually mean change the world. Although it's not clearly defined, I think we can all agree that when Steve Jobs wanted to change the world he meant to change the world for the better. In my view, better is what enables a society to become more civilized[1]. The iPhone, facebook or Microsoft Windows do NOT enable such behavior. They are tools. These tools can be used for good or bad purpose. Ghandi, was able to free a country without lifting arms. I can not think of any one in history who achieved such a HUGE task. Ghandi showed that a man, can become a symbol and a symbol can bring an unexpected result by common sense. Also Ghandi showed that the end does NOT justify the means in an undisputed way. Ghandi changed the lives of Indian population for the better. Mandella did the same. They changed the world for the better. If by changing the world Steve Jobs[2] meant creating the iPad, sky-rocketing Apple's stock, creating the first idiot-proof, 600 USD smart-phone, etc. I don't know. But he surely didn't change the world for the better in my view. ps. In the Arab spring, twitter played a major role in communication. That's a good use of technology. But by no means twitter allowed the Arab sprint to take place. It was just a tool of communication with the outside world, nothing more nothing less, just a tool. If it was not for twitter, there would have been something else. Linus Torvalds (on of the few real pioneers imho among all the IT big names) said it best about the Linux (kernel): "If I haven't done it in 1992, some else would have done it in 1993, because the time was right for someone to create a kernel for the GNU". [1] Civilized: bring (a place or people) to a stage of social development considered to be more advanced: a civilized society. (as adj.civilized) polite and good-mannered: such an affront to civilized behaviour will no longer be tolerated. [2] http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2813-do-you-want-to-sell-sugar-water-for http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2813-do-you-want-to-sell-suga...

atmosx 13y ago

I was actually planning on writing a detailed blog post on the subject, due to the high volume of company looking for X super-duper developers, to help us change the world attitude that is common these days. Instead it came out as a comment... But here it goes a more detailed explanation. What do we actually mean change the world. Although it's not clearly defined, I think we can all agree that when Steve Jobs wanted to change the world he meant to change the world for the better. In my view, better is what enables a society to become more civilized[1]. The iPhone, facebook or Microsoft Windows do NOT enable such behavior. They are tools. These tools can be used for good or bad purpose. Ghandi, was able to free a country without lifting arms. I can not think of any one in history who achieved such a HUGE task. Ghandi showed that a man, can become a symbol and a symbol can bring an unexpected result by common sense. Also Ghandi showed that the end does NOT justify the means in an undisputed way. Ghandi changed the lives of Indian population for the better. Mandella did the same. They changed the world for the better. If by changing the world Steve Jobs[2] meant creating the iPad, sky-rocketing Apple's stock, creating the first idiot-proof, 600 USD smart-phone, etc. I don't know. But he surely didn't change the world for the better in my view. ps. In the Arab spring, twitter played a major role in communication. That's a good use of technology. But by no means twitter allowed the Arab sprint to take place. It was just a tool of communication with the outside world, nothing more nothing less, just a tool. If it was not for twitter, there would have been something else. Linus Torvalds (on of the few real pioneers imho among all the IT big names) said it best about the Linux (kernel): "If I haven't done it in 1992, some else would have done it in 1993, because the time was right for someone to create a kernel for the GNU". [1] Civilized: bring (a place or people) to a stage of social development considered to be more advanced: a civilized society. (as adj.civilized) polite and good-mannered: such an affront to civilized behaviour will no longer be tolerated. [2] http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2813-do-you-want-to-sell-sugar-water-for http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2813-do-you-want-to-sell-suga...